The world’s least interesting idea for a video game returns from its award-winning debut on PC to what may be the definition edition on iPad.

In the famous Milgram experiment it was shown that most people will perform even the most heinous acts as long as they have an authority figure to whom they can claim they were ‘only following orders’. Most people like to think there is good in everyone, but while that presumably means there’s an equal capacity for evil the worrying truth is that indifferent servitude may be an even more prevalent state of mind. One that Papers, Please fully encourages.

There is no way to make Papers, Please look or sound exciting, but that’s fine because excitement is not its goal. The game is almost solely the work of one Lucas Pope, who was apparently inspired to make the game while living in Japan as an American – and enduring the country’s infamously rigorous immigration procedures.

Originally released on PC last year this new iOS edition is almost exactly the same game, except with an unlockable multitouch control system – which is a natural fit for the game’s existing controls. The inspection mode has also been slightly tweaked, but that’s really it. But given how well suited the game already is to being played on a tablet the lack of change doesn’t feel like a cop-out.

Papers, Please sees you working as an immigration inspector in the fictional country of Arstotzka, implied to be an Eastern bloc country during the height of the Cold War. The game’s world is portrayed through bleak 8-bit visuals and a suitably sombre (but surprisingly catchy) Soviet-sounding soundtrack.

Your job is to inspect the papers of the endless queue of miserable-looking people lining up at the border, checking for discrepancies in their documents and trying to weed out smugglers, spies, insurgents, and other enemies of the state. What happens to these people though is not your concern; you don’t end up in fierce gun battles with them or fight to liberate an oppressed people. You just look at the documents you’re given and check for typos.

An incorrectly entered height could simply be a mistake or it could be a sign that the passport is a forgery. You can be lenient and let them through anyway – especially if they have a sob story to tell – but why should you risk your own living for the sake of a complete stranger?

Moral decisions have been one of the big fads of recent years, but they’re usually so melodramatic as to have no real psychological depth. In Papers, Please though the way the game is set-up encourages you to trust no one, to assume the worst of your fellow man, and to think of no-one but yourself and your family.

Papers, Please (iPad) – Apple initially took the nudity out, but it’s back in now

In the game’s story mode you’re given a meagre wage at the end of the day, which is docked for any mistakes you’ve made. Whatever you have left has to be carefully spent on rent, food, medicine, and other necessities that could mean the difference between life and death for you and your loved ones.

Against that what do you care if some other man is separated from his wife because her documents were not in order?

As the story progresses more and more new rules are introduced, as you’re told to detain residents of particular countries or look out for a wanted criminal. Also, people will start asking favours of you, which not only jeopardises your position but also makes checking documents a lot harder.

In terms of gameplay mechanics though there’s no getting away from it: Papers, Please is boring and repetitive. But it’s meant to be that way. You’re not supposed to be enjoying being an immigration official, checking rulebooks and cross-referencing entries. And yet despite this the game is incredibly tense.

The story mode (there’s also a trio of endless modes) lasts around four or five hours, as tensions with neighbouring countries rise and the game’s main story arc comes to a conclusion in one of 20 possible endings. When you get to the end of one of them it’s not the enjoyment of the game mechanics that will have you coming back for more, but the desire to engineer a happier ending.

There’s something very profound in Papers, Please – in its ability to show the knock-on effect a lack of empathy can have on the lives of everyone around you. The old adage that ‘all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing’ is brought to life in daringly bleak terms, making a game of it but one that offers no moral commentary of its own.

If you don’t feel bad about yourself after knowingly ruining the lives of innocent people then that’s your own business, but even though it’s ‘only a game’ the implications on both a global and personal scale are chilling.

Games like The Last Of Us have already begun to take video games out of an era of black and white morality, but the sea of grey that Papers, Please operates in is the bleakest yet – not just because of the setting but because of how harshly it tests your own sense of morality and compassion.

In Short: The concept may sound absurd but the experience of playing Papers, Please shines a light not on the game’s hapless victims but on the player’s own sense of decency.

Pros: A fascinatingly original concept that has a lot to say about human nature. Sharp writing and as bleak and depressing as it is the presentation and atmosphere is pitch perfect. Works well on iPad.

Cons: The main gameplay mechanics are simplistic and inarguably boring – which is entirely on purpose, but makes playing for long periods of time difficult.